Life Attempts
by Martial Arts Master
Summary: Someone is making attempts on Ash's life, but who could it be? Please review!


Life Attempts  
by Martial Arts Master  
Pokemon and all related characters are copyrighted by Nintendo, Game Freak, Creatures Inc., Satoshi Tajiri, TV Tokyo, 4Kids, and Wizards of the Coast. This is my first Mystery fic. Unfortunately, I'm not good at writing interactive-style mysteries, so this fic won't be designed for you to be able to solve it. I apologize. Anyway, this takes place after the "Tanks Alot" episode that aired today. So now the story will start.  
  
***  
  
It was nighttime, Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu were walking along a path through a clearing. They didn't look very happy.  
"Ohh, I'm tired," Ash groaned.  
"So am I," Misty said.  
"My feet are killing me," groaned Brock.  
"Pika," Pikachu groaned, agreeing.  
Suddenly they came to a Poke Center. They sighed in relief at the familiar-looking house-like structure.  
"Good, we can rest here!" Ash said.  
"Thank GOODNESS," Misty said.  
"And there's sure to be a Nurse Joy here!" Brock said excitingly, and they went inside.  
  
Inside, sure enough, there was a Nurse Joy there. Brock immediately walked up to her, his face blushing.  
"Why hello there, good to see a friendly face, and I must say you are quite pretty," Brock said.  
"Brock, down boy!" Misty said, dragging him away from Nurse Joy by the ear.  
"Excuse me, miss, but we're exhausted, and we'd like to sleep here for the night, if you don't mind, that is," Ash said.  
Nurse Joy smiled.  
"Certainly," Nurse Joy said. "We have plenty of room here. I'm afraid it'll cost you 7 dollars, though."  
"How much do you guys have?" Ash asked Misty and Brock.  
"I have one dollar," Misty said.  
"I have two dollars," Brock said.  
Ash dug deep in his pockets and came up with two dollars.  
"Excellent," Nurse Joy said, beaming. "You have enough for a stay here."  
Suddenly Ash's stomach growled.  
"Oh no," Ash groaned. "I'm hungry, and I don't have any more money!"  
"Oh, don't worry about it," Nurse Joy said. "Food is covered by the 7 dollars."  
"Ok, great!" Ash said excitedly.  
  
Later, our heroes were sitting at a humongous table. It was so huge that there were places for Ash, Misty, Brock, Pikachu, and every single one of their Pokemon. Ash had a plate of sushi. Misty, having declined sushi because of her affinity for water creatures, had decided on eating a bunch of green apples instead. Brock was eating Sushi, like Ash was, and their Pokemon had decided on Poke-Chow, the food the trainers usually gave their Pokemon.  
"Oh man, this is gonna be a great meal!" Ash said.  
Then he looked around and saw everyone else was already eating except Brock, who was still in a trance thanks to looking at Nurse Joy. Ash sweatdropped.  
"Ok, guess I better start, then," Ash said.  
Ash then realized that he had been mistaken earlier. Not EVERYONE except Brock was eating. Chikorita looked like it was smelling something, and from Chikorita's worried face, it probably smelled bad.  
"What's the matter, Chikorita?" Ash asked.  
Chikorita did its version of a shrug, but it looked like it was on the verge of discovering it.  
"Oh well, I'll find out later," Ash said. He picked up a piece of sushi with his fork.  
Suddenly Ash heard what sounded like a gasp of realization from Chikorita. Without warning, Chikorita jumped from its seat, leaped over to Ash's plate, and knocked the plate of food from the table. This caused everyone to stop eating and get astonished looks on their faces.  
"Chikorita, what did you do THAT for?" Ash asked angrily. "You've ruined my meal!"  
Chikorita began speaking long sentences in an attempt to explain.  
"What do you suppose it could be trying to tell us?" Brock asked.  
"Beats me," Misty said.  
The other Pokemon looked like they understood, but they looked like they didn't believe Chikorita, so they didn't do anything.  
"Sorry, Chikorita, but we can't understand a word you're saying," Ash said.  
Chikorita sighed, paused for a few minutes, and then made a decision. It leaped down to the floor and took a bite out of the fallen sushi. Suddenly Chikorita curled up and began screaming.  
"Oh jeez! Chikorita, what's wrong?" Ash asked, panicked. He ran to Chikorita's side.  
"It sounds like it's out of its mind with pain!" Misty said, only SLIGHTLY less panicked.  
"It looks like it's been poisoned or something!" Brock said.  
"What's going on here?" Nurse Joy asked, having rushed into the room at the sound of screaming. Then she saw Chikorita and gasped.  
"Oh my goodness! Everyone, get Chikorita to the ER right away!" Nurse Joy said. (Author's Note: I think ER stands for Emergency Room, but I'm not entirely sure.)  
  
An hour later, having recalled all of his other Pokemon except for Pikachu, Ash was standing just outside the ER, pacing around worriedly, with Brock and Misty sitting on the couch. Ash couldn't for the life of him figure out what had caused Chikorita so much pain that it had started screaming so loudly. Ash hoped Chikorita would be all right.  
Nurse Joy came out of the ER, and Ash stopped pacing.  
"Is it gonna be all right, Nurse Joy?" Ash asked anxiously.  
Nurse Joy smiled and said, "Chikorita's going to be just fine."  
Ash sighed in relief.  
"But what caused that much pain?" Brock asked, standing up. "Did you make a false cut preparing the sushi or something?"  
"No, Brock, that would have been FATAL," Misty said to Brock, also standing up.  
"Chikorita's body had serotoxin in it," Nurse Joy said matter-of-factly.  
"What's serotoxin?" Ash asked.  
"Serotoxin is a venom that causes extreme pain," Nurse Joy said. "It must have been all over your plate of sushi. If you had eaten the whole thing, you would have been caused so much pain that your brain would have been unable to handle it, and it would short-circuit, leaving you dead."  
Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu gasped.  
"Then that means that somebody was trying to kill me!" Ash said.  
"And apparently they didn't care who else they killed," Nurse Joy said. "I analyzed Brock's sushi, and there was serotoxin all over that, too."  
"Good grief!" Brock exclaimed. "If I hadn't been in a love trance, I would have been killed!"  
"Whoever did this was nasty as heck," Misty said.  
Ash looked angry.  
"Chikorita risked its life just to save mine," Ash said angrily, "and if I EVER catch the would-be murderer, I'm gonna kick his butt so hard he'll have to turn his head around to be facing straight!"  
Then, Chikorita walked out of the ER, looking as healthy as ever.  
"Chikorita, I'm sorry I got mad at you for knocking my food over, and I'm glad you did," Ash said to Chikorita, "and I'm also sorry I didn't understand you before. If I had, you wouldn't have suffered so much."  
Chikorita said something in which its tone of voice sounded something like "anything for you", and leapt into Ash's arms, nuzzling him like it usually did thanks to its crush on him. Ash chuckled, and then recalled Chikorita back into its Poke Ball.  
"I'm getting rid of my sushi supply," Nurse Joy said. "Since there was no way the killer would have known which sushi be eaten by the correct person, the would-be killer must have poisoned the whole supply."  
"Well, we're out of here," Ash said, and his group left.  
  
Later, they were walking on the path again, when suddenly a fisherman ran up to Ash.  
"Hey you!" the fisherman said to the group.  
"Yes, what is it?" Ash said.  
"I'm looking to give my one Pokemon some experience, so I want a battle!" the fisherman said.  
"Ok, you can battle with me!" Ash said.  
"Good," the fisherman replied. "But the one Pokemon I have can't battle on land, so let's battle in that river over there."  
The fisherman pointed to a quiet (Author's Note: I.e., no current) river that lay beside the path.  
"All right, let's do it!" Ash said. He threw the Poke Ball containing Squirtle and said, "I choose you, Squirtle!"  
Squirtle came out of the Poke Ball and jumped into the river.  
"Go, Goldeen!" the fisherman said, throwing a Poke Ball. A Goldeen came out of it and into the river.  
"A water battle. This should be interesting," Misty said.  
"I dunno, this could go either way," Brock said.  
"Goldeen, Horn Attack!" the fisherman commanded.  
"Squirtle, Withdraw!" Ash said.  
Goldeen jumped out of the water and at Squirtle, but Squirtle withdrew into its shell and the Horn Attack didn't do that much damage. Goldeen fell back into the water.  
"Goldeen, use your Waterfall!" the fisherman said.  
Goldeen concentrated, and a lot of the water in front of it suddenly rose up into a waterfall, which descended on Squirtle.  
"Squirtle, go under!" Ash said.  
Squirtle went under the water, and when the Waterfall crashed into the surface of the water, all it did to Squirtle was propel it back to the surface.  
"Now use your Skull Bash attack!" Ash shouted.  
Squirtle rammed into Goldeen headfirst, knocking it out.  
"Dang," the fisherman said, recalling his Goldeen. "I guess my Goldeen needs to battle less well-trained Pokemon to get the experience it needs to evolve into a Seaking."  
"All right! Great job, Squirtle!" Ash said, giving his Squirtle a hug.  
Squirtle smiled. But then, as Ash was releasing it from the hug, it's eyes widened like it saw something. It quickly jumped onto Ash's back.  
"Squirtle, what are you---" Ash began. He was about to say "doing" but five darts had punctured Squirtle's shell. Squirtle itself didn't seem to be hurt, and it jumped off of Ash's back and took the darts out of its shell.  
"Whoa!" Ash said, astonished at the close call.  
After the fisherman inspected the darts, Ash found out how close it was when the fisherman said, "The points of these darts have been made razor sharp! If these things had punctured you, you would have been a goner!"  
Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu gasped. Ash turned to Squirtle.  
"Thank you for saving my life, Squirtle," Ash said, giving Squirtle another hug, and then recalling it.  
"This is serious, Ash," Misty said. "This is the second attempt on your life so far!"  
"Second?" the fisherman asked, confused.  
The group explained the serotoxin incident to the fisherman.  
"Well, if you want to find the killer, and if I were you, I'd start looking to see if I had any enemies," the fisherman said, and then ran off.  
"Well, the members of Team Rocket are our enemies," Brock said.  
"Get real, Brock," Ash said. "Those three would have botched the attempts." (Author's Note: No offense to those of you who like Team Rocket. I'm just trying to keep Ash in character.) "Well, I don't know of any other enemies we've made," Brock said.  
"Actually, Brock, we've made one so far," Misty said. "Damian."  
Ash and Brock remembered Damian, a nasty trainer who left Pokemon he thought were weak out in the wild to die. He'd come back for Charmander, but Charmander had refused to go with him, and instead went with Ash. Charmander was now a Charizard.  
"But Damian seemed to be a coward to me," Brock said.  
"Well I know one way to find out," Ash said. "Here's my plan..."  
  
A half-hour later, the group was standing in a clearing, Ash having sent out Heracross as a lookout. So far, no one made any murder attempts.  
"This is BORING," Ash complained. "A half-hour and there's no sign of any---"  
Ash was cut off in mid-sentence as a Molotov cocktail came flying at Ash. Heracross, seeing the danger, immediately threw itself in front of Ash. It managed to knock the Molotov cocktail back the way it came, and then the Molotov cocktail exploded by a tree. The tree was blown up, and a figure was lying on the ground, dizzy.  
The group recognized the figure.  
"DAMIAN!" the group cried out.  
"Yeah, it was me," Damian said with his Australian accent once he was able to come to his senses and stand up.  
"But why?" Ash asked.  
"Don't you know?" Damian asked rhetorically. "When a Pokemon's trainer dies, the Pokemon, no longer having a trainer, is considered offically wild. All I had to do was kill you, and then it would have been legal for me to catch Charizard."  
Something about that last sentence bothered Brock.  
"Wait a minute," Brock said. "How'd you know it was a Charizard? The last time you saw it, it was a Charmander!"  
"My Pokemon had to torture Team Rocket to get them to tell me where you were," Damian said, chuckling. "And they told me that the once-weak Charmander is now a powerful Charizard!"  
"And how did you get all the serotoxin, darts, and Molotov cocktail?" Misty asked.  
"I simply broke into places that had the materials, stole the materials, and made the stuff myself!" Damian said.  
"All this just to get a strong Pokemon! You're disgusting!" Ash said.  
"Enough talk! I want that Charizard, so I'm just gonna have to take it from you!" Damian said. He threw a Poke Ball and said, "Here's my most powerful Pokemon!"  
A Tyranitar came out of the Poke Ball. The group didn't know it was a Tyranitar until Ash checked his Pokedex, which said it was a Tyranitar.  
"All right Heracross, go!" Ash said, pointing to Tyranitar. Heracross turned until it was facing Tyranitar.  
"Tyranitar, Rock Slide!" Damian commanded.  
Tyranitar made a rock appear out of thin air, and then slid the rock at Heracross, but the rock slid too slowly, and Heracross easily jumped over it.  
"Ha! That was just to leave Heracross open!" Damian said. "Tyranitar, Hyper Beam!"  
Tyranitar glowed orange for a moment, and then fired a Hyper Beam at Heracross.  
"Heracross, quick, use your Counter!" Ash said.  
Heracross got hit by the Hyper Beam, but then slammed into Tyranitar and did DOUBLE the damage that the Hyper Beam did to Heracross. Tyranitar was knocked out.  
"Good god, you weakling, and YOU'RE my most powerful Pokemon?" Damian asked rhetorically, recalling Tyranitar.  
Brock decided to make sure Damian was restrained until the group could find a phone to call the police.  
"Onix, go!" Brock said, sending out Onix.  
"Onix, use your Bind on Damian!" Brock said.  
"No, don't!" Damian said, trying to run away. But Onix wrapped around him and bound him in place.  
"Good, now let's find a phone and call the police!" Brock said.  
"There should be a phone in the Poke Center," Misty said.  
"Ok, let's go!" Brock said. He wondered why Ash didn't join in, until he turned and saw Ash giving his Heracross a hug for both saving his life and winning the battle.  
  
Later, in front of the Poke Center, Officer Jenny took Damian away in a police car. Ash, who was inside the Poke Center along with Misty, Brock, and Pikachu, turned to Misty and Brock.  
"Jeez, I didn't even know Damian would resort to that kind of stuff just to get Charizard."  
"Well, some people are good at disguising murderous intentions," Brock said.  
"Well one thing's for sure, I'm not gonna make any enemies ever again!" Ash said.  
  
The End  
  
***  
  
E-mail all questions and comments to bleifer@msn.com. 


End file.
